HEALTH Minister Khairy Jamaluddin should give a proper answer as to why there are high COVID-19 death rates and high brought-in-dead (BID) cases, said Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang.
During his visit to Kota Kinabalu on Monday Khairy said that the high number of COVID-19 deaths reported daily does not reflect the actual number of fresh deaths that occur within 24 hours.
He also explained that the numbers are sometimes piled up over several days as the authorities need time to confirm the cause of death, especially in places such as in the Klang Valley which also have a high COVID-19 vaccination rate.
Khairy said most of the backlog was a result of the high number of people brought in dead (BID) to hospitals, as their causes of death had to be investigated before they can be reported as a COVID-19 statistic.
“I asked a medical practitioner what he thought of Khairy’s reply,” Lim said in a blog post on Tuesday (Sept 7).
“He said that in summary, the cause of BID cases is likely to be poor communication between the caregiver and patient, as well as inadequate treatment for these people being left alone in isolation to die.
“You tell a 65-year-old patient to quarantine in a room with his handphone and some Panadol. What do you think runs through his mind?
“He knows that COVID-19 can kill. So he asks, why is there no treatment to help me get well? Even if you do not prescribe Ivermectin, at least the patient deserves a small medical kit containing Vitamins C and D, as well as some zinc and antibiotics,” Lim related.
These are all drugs shown to help immunity and the last to combat coincidental infections, the medical practitioner told Lim.
“Healthy people below 60-years-old with Categories 1 and 2 infections have a 90% chance of survival if there are no comorbidities.
“The important comorbidities are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, stroke and cancer. Even if they are from Categories 1 or 2, these people should be admitted as they have increased risk of dying.”
The medical practitioner further pointed out to Lim that once a person is brought in dead and they do an RTK-Ag test and if the test results are positive, the person is certified as a COVID-19 death.
“That should not take more than two hours for the test results to come back. Is Khairy saying that all BIDs are coroner cases that require post-mortem?” Lim questioned.
According to Lim, while post-mortems may lead to backlogs, an RTK-Ag test takes two hours with minimal backlog.
“I do not believe that they are doing post-mortems for all BID cases,” he added.
“If there is really a backlog, is it just the previous fellow’s (Datuk Seri Adham Baba’s) inefficiency? Is he saying that the previous minister did not do his job, and he (Khairy) is cleaning up the mess?
“While there has been a change of minister, the Health director-general (DG) remains the same, so please ask the DG for the real reason behind the backlog.”
Lim further noted that the country’s crude death rate overall is 0.98% so far, with the country expected to cross to 1% soon.
“Surely counting how many people were brought in dead with positive RTK-PCR test results cannot be very difficult.
“The global crude death rate is presently 2.06% while the projected COVID-19 death rate by the Stanford experts is near 0.15% for COVID-19 deaths. Is Malaysia creating a record again? Khairy’s comments have certainly raised more questions.” – Sept 7, 2021.
